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North Korea/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Tim enters a room where Moby packs his belongings into a suitcase. TIM: All packed up for your summer vacation? MOBY: Beep. TIM: Where you off to this year? Moby hands Tim a stack of travel brochures for North Korea. TIM: Um… uh-- hey look, a letter! Tim flips through the brochures. He removes a typed letter from the stack and reads from it. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, I keep hearing scary stuff about North Korea in the news. What's going on there? From, Edie. Sure, Edie. North Korea is the most isolated country in the world. MOBY: Beep? TIM: Uh yeah. It is right next to South Korea. I mean it's isolated from contact with the rest of the world. An animation shows a map of the Korean Peninsula. A wall appears and surrounds North Korea. TIM: The country's official name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. But it's about as far from a democracy as you can get. The government has complete control over every aspect of the country. Any kind of individuality is severely discouraged. An animation shows thousands of identical soldiers assembled in rows. TIM: A powerful military enforces strict codes of speech and behavior. And at the top of it all is a Supreme Leader with near-total authority. Army leaders stand in front of the crowd. A Supreme Leader appears in a balcony high above the crowd. TIM: When that kind of power is concentrated in one person, they're called a dictator. The Supreme Leader waves to the crowd. A military parade marches by. TIM: North Korea's dictator is Kim Jong Un. Before that, it was his father, Kim Jong Il. Kim Jong Un waves as a photographer takes his picture. The camera flashes, and Kim Jong Il appears in place of Kim Jong Un. TIM: And before that, his father, Kim Il Sung. The camera flashes again, and Kim Il Sung replaces Kim Jong Il. MOBY: Beep? TIM: Yup, the same family has been in control from the beginning. North Korea was set up as a communist country. That's a system where the government owns the means of production. Stuff like farms, businesses, and factories are all owned and controlled by the government. An animation shows four icons that represent the government, farms, businesses, and factories. The icon that represents the government consumes the others. TIM: Then, it fairly distributes all of the nation's wealth to every citizen. Citizens of various professions appear. The government icon distributes money fairly to the citizens. TIM: That's the theory, at least. But with so much power in one place, communist governments generally give rise to dictatorships. The image of a dictator replaces the government icon. TIM: And dictators tend to hoard wealth and power. Instead of trying to improve things for the people, they mainly look out for themselves. The dictator gathers all the money into a big pile for himself. MOBY: Beep? TIM: North Korea's journey down this road began in World War II. The Korean Peninsula was taken over by Japan. An animation shows a map. The Japanese flag appears in both Japan and the Korean Peninsula. TIM: After Japan lost the war, Korea was divided in half. In the north, there was a communist government, set up by the Soviet Union. A dotted line divides the Korean Peninsula in half. The territory above the line turns red and the Soviet Union flag appears in it. TIM: That was like a giant super-country made up of Russia, Ukraine, and a bunch of other communist nations. The map expands to show the entire Soviet Union. TIM: Meanwhile, in South Korea, the United States installed an anti-communist government. The map focuses on the Korean Peninsula. The southern half turns blue. An American flag appears in it. TIM: Each side wanted to unite the Korean peninsula—under its leadership. North Korea forced the issue when it invaded the south, touching off the Korean War. Explosions appear along the border between North and South Korea. The red color from the north bleeds into most of the southern territory. TIM: They'd taken over nearly everything before an international force led by the United States pushed them back. Over the next three years, a massive bombing campaign destroyed North Korea. Airplanes fly over the map and drop bombs onto North Korea. The red coloring on the map recedes north. The peninsula becomes mostly blue. TIM: Millions of civilians were killed, most of them up north. The bombing reduced towns, farms, and factories to rubble. An animation shows a North Korean town under attack. Bombs destroy everything. The people are devastated. TIM: The fighting ended with Korea still divided along the same exact border. An animation shows the map of the Korean Peninsula. Caution tape reinforces the border between North and South Korea. TIM: To this day, soldiers guard both sides of it in a demilitarized zone, or DMZ. That's a thin slice of neutral land along the border. No peace treaty was ever signed, so technically, the war never really ended. An animation shows soldiers guarding opposite sides of the border. The few feet of space between them is the DMZ. TIM: And that helped Kim Il Sung cement his power. An animation shows Kim Il Sung. He places an army character next to characters of regular civilians. TIM: He used the war to take personal control of the economy. Everything was directed toward rebuilding and weapons production. Kim Il Sung's army character pushes the civilians into a factory that produces teddy bears. The factory starts producing missiles instead of teddy bears. TIM: Kim also demanded total obedience on a personal level. Those who criticized him were jailed and often killed. An animation shows protesters holding signs that say, "No Kim!" Bars trap the protesters in jail. TIM: 'News organizations were required to refer to him with flattering names, like "Great Leader." Schoolchildren were taught to sing his praises. ''An animation shows Kim Il Sung on an old TV. People throw him flowers. Children hold hands and sing for him. '''TIM: And public art in every city depicted Kim as a god-like figure. The image of Kim Il Sung becomes a statue that gleams in the sun. TIM: This kind of worship of a political figure is called a personality cult. North Koreans bow before the statue of Kim Il Sung. TIM: North Korea's cult extends to each new Supreme Leader. Pictures of the Kim family are in every home, office, and classroom. Every day, the pictures must be cleaned with a special cloth. An animation shows a school classroom with framed photographs of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il hanging on the wall. Someone cleans one of the photos with a cloth. MOBY: Beep. TIM: North Koreans have been living this way for more than 50 years. No one is allowed to leave the country, and they have no human rights. Any dissent, disagreement with the government, is severely punished. An animation shows a graffiti artist painting over a propaganda poster. A military policeman catches him. TIM: Violators are sent to huge prison camps, where they can be tortured or executed. Their families can be jailed, too – including future generations! An animation shows the military policeman supervising a prison camp. Dissenters dressed in rags pull a heavy cart. TIM: North Koreans are told that compared to the rest of the world, they're well-off. With no access to the Internet, most of them probably believe that. An animation shows a smiling North Korean journalist on TV. TIM: All of their news comes from state-controlled agencies. And all they broadcast is propaganda: biased information that supports the government. The TV shows government propaganda of a North Korean missile launch. TIM: They say that the United States is just waiting to invade. The journalist appears on the TV again. A map of the Korean Peninsula appears behind her. American warships on the map sail toward North Korea. TIM: Which justifies the government's massive military spending. The TV changes to show an extravagant military parade. TIM: So much money goes to weapons and soldiers, little is left for other things. And that's contributed to a string of food shortages. An animation shows a North Korean family watching the TV broadcast. A boy stands and walks to the kitchen for a snack. He opens a cupboard to find it empty. TIM: In the 1990s, about half a million people died of starvation. An animation shows a man plowing a field. He and his cow are both starving. TIM: Instead of feeding the nation, Kim Jong Il put everything toward developing a nuclear bomb. In 2006, he was finally successful. An animation shows Kim Jong Il watching a nuclear test with several military men. An explosion creates a giant mushroom cloud. MOBY: Beep! TIM: Yeah, it's scary to think of that kind of power in North Korea's hands, especially when they keep threatening to use it. Fearful of what Tim said, Moby hides in a basement, taking shelter. TIM: 'But keep in mind that the Kim regime has just one goal: to stay in power. ''An animation shows Kim Jong Un seated at a game board. He places his military game pieces onto the map. '''TIM: If they launched an attack, it would pit them against the entire world. They wouldn't be in power for much longer. Larger game pieces surround Kim Jong Un's. He is playing against leaders from around the world. TIM: The Kims threaten war abroad because it makes for good propaganda at home. If their people live in fear of an attack, they're easier to control. The Kim regime seems to believe they can control other nations through fear, too. Kim Jong Un pushes the game pieces with an even larger military game piece. TIM: But world leaders refuse to play along. MOBY: Beep. World leaders push an absolutely giant military ship against Kim Jong Un's pieces. TIM: The more North Korea threatens, the more nations line up against them. The whole world agrees it's a serious problem…Even countries that disagree on, well, pretty much everything else. An animation shows world leaders voting in agreement at a United Nations meeting. TIM: World leaders are working together to find solutions. They're using sanctions, limits on trade and other stuff, to pressure North Korea to change its behavior. An animation shows ships filled with supplies sailing toward North Korea. Red x's appear over each ship. TIM: And in 2018, the North Korean leader set foot in the South for the first time since the war. There, the two leaders shook hands in friendship. An animation shows Kim Jong Un shaking hands with the leader of South Korea across the DMZ. TIM: President Donald Trump followed up with a meeting of his own. But real progress will require more than symbolic talks. An animation shows Kim Jong Un shaking hands with Donald Trump. TIM: Anyway, I hope you're thinking about taking your vacation somewhere else. MOBY: Beep. TIM: A "staycation?" Your whole life is a staycation! MOBY: Beep. An animation shows Moby relaxing in a pool with his robot friends. He is wearing sunglasses and sipping pink lemonade from a cup with an umbrella. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Social Studies Transcripts